THE MAIL PASSION PLAYS Peter J. Boyer comments that Mel Gib- son made "The Passion," his :film about the death of Jesus Christ, "straight from the Gospels" ("The Jesus War," Septem- ber 15th). But when I checked my copy of the Bible, there was no mention of the "insistent beat of martial drums" that Boyer describes in the resurrection scene; instead, there is Jesus saying, in two of the four accounts, "Peace be with you." The notion that a "literalist" reading of the Gospels cannot avoid a tinge of anti- Semitism is also nonsense. Although the Jewish leadership wanted Jesus dead, all the Gospels make it clear that the Jew- ish people supported Jesus; indeed, the priests were afraid to arrest him in pub- lic lest a "riot among the people" should break out. The role of Judas is necessary in the story because the priests, who were "afraid of the people," needed someone to "betray him to them when d " no crow was present. Chris Wood St. Paul, Minn. As an artist, Gibson has a right, and even an obligation, to tell the truth as he sees it and to ignore other considerations, just as viewers have a right to discuss, de- plore, despise, disdain, and dismiss any- thing he might put on the screen. But it would have been enlightening to learn, in the context of Boyer's article, what Gibson's larger goal or fantasy is for this movie-and what good he hopes to do with it. Only then can we judge whether the movie is being made in service of a possibly destructive agenda. Jane Smlley Carmel Valley, Calif Boyer's article about Gibson's:film illus- trates a two-thousand-year-old misun- derstanding about the essence of Chris- tianity: "Who killed Jesus" is completely beside the point. How can so many the- ologians gather in one place and fail to point out that Jesus went to Jerusalem to die? His mission, and Christianity's cen- tral fact, was and is the sacrifice of his human life. To be angry at one group or another for being the agent of the final deed is to not understand the message at all. It was humans who killed J esus-pe- riod. It does not matter which ones were there when it happened. Jesus, in fact, forgave the ones present. If we stay fo- cussed on the sacrifice made and the for- giveness given, all debate over whom to punish is irrelevant. Robert Shiffer Winter Park, Fla. BAD LIQUOR Dan Baum writes that jake leg, the pa- ralysis that affucted thousands of people who drank an adulterated patent medi- cine sold as bootleg liquor during Prohi- bition, was both devastating and quickly forgotten ("Jake Leg," September 15th). This is doubly tragic, since more aware- ness might have prevented a similar epi- demic in Morocco, in 1959. The U.S. Air Force had sold off surplus lubricat- ing oil containing the same compound, tri -cresyl phosphate, that had poisoned the liquor. Local merchants then mixed it with higher-priced cooking oil, not knowing what it contained. By the time the sales stopped, ten thousand Moroc- cans had been paralyzed. Noel de Nevers Proftssor Emeritus of Chemical Engineering University of Utah Salt Lake City, Utah Baum writes, ' d so the jake-leg trag- edy dropped down the national amnesia hole." But it did resurface briefly, in 1961, in Episode 44 of the television se- ries "The Untouchables." The episode, called "The Jamaica Ginger Story," left many salient facts intact; I was only sur- prised to find, in Baum's piece, that the true story is even more horrifYing. Burgess Shale Carlisle, Pa. . Letters should be sent with the writer s name:J address:J and daytime phone number via e-mail to themail@newyorker.com. They can also be faxed to 212-286-5047. Letters may be edited for length and claritY:J and may be published in any medium; we regret that owing to the volume of correspondence we cannot reply to every letter. 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